Decline and Fall of Rome
History of Western Civilization 1 HIEU 201
April 11, 2013
Professor Philip Brown
History of Western Civilization 1 HIEU 201
April 11, 2013
Decline and Fall of Rome When you think of Rome, you think of a super power that rose from a small civilization into an Empire that stretched from Italy down to North Africa. Over the time period of 500 years, the leaders of Rome conquered city by city to reach their greatness. Though it took 500 years for Rome to accomplish this task, it took only 100 years for it to fall. During those 100 years, Rome would be plagued with economic turmoil, inner betrayal, social issues, and a diminishing military. When Marcus Aurelius died in A.D. 180, the Empire was
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Much of the upper class drifted away from spiritual practices, but that was not the case for the masses of peasants and slaves. The spread of mystery religions grew during the Hellenistic era. Slaves, soldiers, and merchants brought many religious cults westward from Persia, Babylon, Syria, Egypt, and Asia Minor (Perry, 2009). The people of Rome paced their hope in mystical Gods to overcome the lack of hope in their lives. These mystical Gods gave the people of Rome a sense of belonging and most importantly a road to immortality. Political issues were another factor in the fall of Rome. As the Roman Empire spread down to the Persian Gulf, Rome still continued to operate their government as if they were a small city. The Roman Empire was designed to govern a city-state and not a large empire. Transportation issues plagued the government. They could not maintain the vast areas of their empire to provide food and supplies to their military. This caused the soldiers to become disloyal and their generals to form their own armies. These armies would take over small areas and establish their own empire. An empire with no control of their own army was destined to fall. Most of the funding for Rome came from taking over other countries. Before the fall, Rome had basically taken all the land that they could. This stopped a large portion of funding for the government. The power driven Emperor’s actually drove their own
Rome was such a large powerful empire, so how did it fall? There were different things leading up to the fall of the Roman Empire, not just a singular cause. The main causes of the fall of the Roman Empire were being reliant foreign soldiers, constant change in emperors (unstable/unorganized government), and economic issues.
Ancient Rome fell for many reasons. This essay has focused on just three. One of them was that Rome had a corrupt government. Rome also had lots of natural forces disrupting them. Their military played a big part, too.
One reason Rome fell was the economic problems and corruption. First of all, since the military was so weak, the leaders kept dying. Mostly of assassination. For example, in the chart in document A, 13 emperors were assassinated. Also a lot of the time the leaders would have bribed the military to stay loyal. The leaders, the people chose, had enemies. The enemies would assassinate them, and take their place. The leaders also made horrible decisions. The empire got weaker and weaker every leader. Everything kept changing. Since most of the leaders didn’t agree with what the other leader previously made legal. The laws were all over the place.
Rome was once a powerful aristocracy empire that was feared and didn't want to mess with but down the line things went wrong time and time again like the negligence of the army, the constant natural disasters, and the treatment of their citizens, because of this happening Rome eventually fell and was no more.
The most important for last, what I know is the main factor for the fall of Rome, is bad leadership. According to document A, there were 22 emperors in 50 years, most of them dying horribly (assassination, battle, etc.). Bad leadership brings up another main problem in the empire, Economic problems and corruption. The emperor's blew off gigantic amounts of money for parties and other useless things, instead of helping the dying empire. This lead to people taking “Justice” into their own
From 50 BCE until the year 200 CE the Roman Empire was the super power of the Mediterranean world. The Roman Empire was always growing but then the empire started to slowly fall apart. According to Document C, two reasons why Economic and Social Problems might be the primary reason for the Fall of Rome was that they were maintaining an army to defend the borders of the Empire. Due to barbarian attacks this shows that it was a constant strain on government.
The primary reason I think caused the fall of Rome was the outside invaders. My reasoning for this is because when they tried to invade Rome, every invasion just kept chiseling away Rome little by little. So Rome weakened in population, and some structure may have been damaged as well. Another reason is the Huns. The Huns were a brutal, savage and barbaric tribe that was one of Rome’s many invaders. The Huns fought relentlessly against Rome with no mercy, which was a big part of the decline of Rome.
The primary reasons for the fall of rome were, internal threats, external threats, and a lack of patriotism. One of the reasons for the “fall” of Rome was that they had many internal threats. Firstly, Julius Caesar and other emperors used inhumane actions to get what they wanted, this caused many civilians to disagree
Alton Bridges, a honest, hardworking, passionate friend, family man and patriot, passed on to calmer waters on July 23, 2016, while fly fishing on the Miramichi River in Blackville, New Brunswick, Canada. He was born in Newburyport, MA, the eldest son of Chancy Curtis and Ruby Mae Bridges, on April 8, 1948.
The seemingly unstoppable Roman empire was certain to fall in a matter of time. Even though Rome was majorly affected by external attacks, I feel like the fall was because of the internal decline. The economy and social issues were the key factors that led to the descent of the large empire. A vast amount of their problems came from within the city. Every decision that Rome made had an extensive effect on the city itself and the rest of the world. Many foolish decisions made by terrible emperors weakened the city and eventually cause the many aspects of Roman life to crumble.
At one time, all of Rome was united by a common religion. This religion, commonly referred to as the Roman religion, was derived from the religion in Greece. Members of this religion, which included the majority, if not all, of the Roman citizens, worshiped many different gods, including the creator or father god, Jupiter, the sun god, Apollo, the god of inspiring wars, Mars, and many others as well. The popularity of this religion began to decline when Christianity arose. It appealed to the majority of the people, particularly the lower class and slaves, who now had something to put their hope and faith in. This religion spread rapidly, and Roman emperors felt that because it was so influential it would become a possible threat. These leaders began persecuting Christians, but many Romans had already committed to this religion and refused to abandon it because they viewed it as the most important part of their life. This led to a lack of patriotism in Roman citizens who then rejected politics and became independent of the government.
Drinking age is not a strange phrase in our lives. Every time when we go to club or buy some liquor, we have to show our photo ID to prove that we have already 21 and we are legal to drink wine. I think this is a really good method to control drinking problem. Before I read these two articles which are “The 21-Year-Old Drinking Age: I Voted for it, It Doesn’t Work” by Dr. Morris E. Chafetz and “The Drinking Age of 21 Saves Lives” by Toben F. Nelson and Traci L. Toomey, I only felt that when people grow up they will have self-control to hold their desire for drinking and could decide whether it is appropriate to drink at that moment. I didn’t collect any data or information to support my opinion,
The war on drugs has proven to be a long standing complex issue in today's society. Decades after Regan declared America's stand on the drug epidemic, this subject is still a topic of conversation amongst the government, local and federal, along with concerned citizens. America has made little to no progress in decreasing drug addiction and distribution in communities and has yet to find a solution on how to stop drug pollution. Many years later, with still or solution, one may ask, is this indeed a judicial issue? Or it is a legislative problem? Why has the government been ineffective 30 years later? Has there been any progress since the beginning stages? What is it going to take to conquer this
The Roman Empire was a vast territory that expanded to three different continents.They were a place of honor, tradition, and respect. Rome has had several different periods, some of peace, and some of violence or unrest, but those were solved quickly and effectively. However, such a magnificent empire could not hold up under the strains that were slowly causing it to collapse. Rome began to face many problems that together allowed the fall of the Roman Empire. The three main problems that caused Rome to fall were invasions by barbarians, an unstable government, and pure laziness and negligence.
It 's been fourteen years since I attended high school. Since then I have had a few life altering events, which have helped pave the way for my new journey in life. Key events that led me down this path started with a life threatening illness of my then longtime boyfriend, now husband, followed by the caring for my Grandmother whose health was declining.